Daisy Ware-Jarrett

The Exhibition arrangement

daisy Ware-Jarrett — Tue, 21 May 2013 13:16:51 +0000

It’s important to think about arrangement at the exhibition, how my artefacts are presented will change how the audience interacts with them.

First off I need the overall arrangement, I have previously printed out and arranged my finals so I know what they will look like, I just have to work out where the shelf with the figurine will go. I have found the ideal floating shelf in Ikea, it’s 30×26 cm big and comes in black and white, giving me the option of those two and the possibility of painting it purple too. Below is a little plan I mocked up on photoshop quickly. giving indication as to scale, and positioning. I have shown the shelf as purple here but I am still unsure of the colour, at the moment I think white will work best.

Next is working out the layout of items on the shelf. Here are some possibilities I have been playing with.

Final Choice:

I want the figurine to be laying down because it then appears more submissive rather than being able to stand on it’s own it has to be controlled and given direction. The ‘Trade Me’, ‘Play With Me’ and ‘Dress Me’ labels came to me as I was doing this task, it needed direction and the invitation to touch as in the exhibition space people can be weary of touching the art. It also plays on the consumerism idea, being told what to do. The labels branding will be similar to the trading cards and will be printed as stickers that I can keep on the shelf and also stick on myself and others on the night of the exhibition.

This consistency in branding is key, the character has no original identity, only branding. The silhouette I have used throughout represents this emptiness/template well.

No video

daisy Ware-Jarrett — Tue, 21 May 2013 10:35:39 +0000

I have been working on this video for around a week now, however I now it’s done I don’t want to use it. The video was a late addition to my project but as I think about how the exhibition will work I do not think the video is necessary. I hope my images, project description, trading cards and figurine are strong enough together to get my point across. If people are intrigued about my project and want to know some context then I can talk to them bout it rather than make them watch a video.

Faulty Prints

daisy Ware-Jarrett — Mon, 20 May 2013 12:30:26 +0000

I had been worried about my prints since I saw photo previews of them last week. However nothing could have prepared me for the audio faults on top of the cheap printing.

The noises mixed with the bad printing made me 100% sure that I need to get a refund and order some more prints ASAP. I wanted to go to the university print bureaux, however it’s too late in the day, my prints may not be ready in time. So Genea advised me to look at the print space, it’s a well known London based photographic print company. Once I checked them out I realised I had been on this website before and the Kodak Metalic paper had me very interested. I did some more research on the paper and customer reviews and it all sounds really positive.

It’s hard to see the real effects through a screen but peoples reactions on youTube tell me all I need to know.

The metalic paper will bring out the over exposed areas and hopefully make up for the lack of luminescent panels by reflecting loads of light. The metallic look reflects technology and the consumerist industry.

The Print Space offer over night delivery for an extra tenner, well worth it. There is nothing more frustrating than leaving your work in other peoples hands for a week on end, thats one thing I’ve learnt over the last few weeks.

These prints have worked out half the cost of my other ones (£158.86 in total), I know the quality will be good as the company are well established and have researched the paper, I am sure that this is the best option. I will move ahead with ordering these prints and hope I can get money back from the printers in China. Lesson learnt, always buy from your country, and research the quality and company service before you buy.

I am getting 3 x prints on C-Type Metallic on 5mm foamboard.

The reason for the foam board is the work doesn’t suit frames, it’s delicate and in my heart if it cannot be backlit it needs to be mounted, a frame is too bulky and homely for such commercial clinical prints.

Costume making Day 2

daisy Ware-Jarrett — Sun, 19 May 2013 22:38:19 +0000

After my unsuccessful day at making costumes for my figure yesterday I headed straight for hobbycraft t get everything I needed. Most importantly the anti fray liquid which would make my life easier in regards to not having to hem a 3cm wide t-shirt. With all the right materials today was a good day.

After 4 attempts at the little red dress I managed to complete it, it still needs some trimming round the edges to make it less chunky but their is no point in doing that until I paint the cola logo onto it tomorrow as I could completely ruin the dress and have to start again. I also had time to make the socks to match the dress. At first I naively made the socks from standard polyester/cotton I soon realised I would have to cut up some real socks to make the mini ones due to the elasticated material.

I also made huge progress with the magical girl costume, the skirt looks less tatty and the top is slowly becoming the right shape, but still needs changing.

Hopefully tomorrow I can make the finishing touches on the Product Placement dress and perfect the magical girl top, aswel as string on the geisha outfit.

Making the costumes

daisy Ware-Jarrett — Sat, 18 May 2013 16:31:12 +0000

For the doll I have 3 outfits to make, each one a miniature of the costumes in my images.

In order to make these outfits I need 2 things, the measurements of my doll and the fabric. Now I have picked up the doll I can begin te costumes.

Entire height: 185mm
Head Circumference: 13 mm
Shoulder width (across back): 40mm
Breast Circumference: 89mm
Waist Circumference: 53mm
Hip Circumference: 100mm

Head to shoulders (down back): 50mm
Shoulders to waist (down back): 37mm
Waist to Hips (down back): 31mm
Legs to floor (down back): 92mm
shoulder to wrist length: 59mm

I went to the market to buy fabric, unfortunately they didn’t have everything I wanted so I just tried my best to get what I could. I will have to make a trip to hobbycraft tomorrow to pick up the rest. I started wit the magical girl outfit as I think it will be the easiest to make.

I used paper, the existing garment and the measurements of the figurine to make a paper pattern of the top, I knew I wouldn’t have to make a pattern for the skirt because gathering and tutu’s were something I have sone before so went straight into it.

I think the material used for the top is to rigid, the top doesn’t flow of the body, as everything is being made in miniature I need to pay close attention to the type of fabric so that I know it will work well in small quantities. The skirt however I like, it needs to be dyed and is a little more rigid that the real skirt but I think for a figurine that works well, it’s more dramatic.

Unsatisfied with the yellow fabric but happy with the skirt I moved on to the red cola dress. My first mistake was cutting the fabric to small, my second was thinking I would be able to hem a dress which is about 3 cm wide and 8cm long. When attempting hemming it ended up looking cheap and tacky, I need to get some anti-fray spray from hobbycraft so that when i cut the fabric it doesn’t fray along the edges and I don not need to hem it. This puts all production of hold until tomorrow when I can get the spray.

Trading Cards

daisy Ware-Jarrett — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:44:22 +0000

My Trading Cards arrived today, I have yet to blog about the order because all I was able to do is post .jps of the design whereas now I can show what they look like as an artefact.

50 x cards, back side

12 card variations, Top Row: Magical Girl, Second Row: Product Placement, Third Row: 21st Centruy Geisha

In terms of design I attempted to have different back images on each card but it didn’t work well so I created an almost logo of the character from the PDF photo of the figurine. I then made 4 variations of each look, mixing the final images, purikura images and prop photos.

Printed Figurine

daisy Ware-Jarrett — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:01:19 +0000

Today I awoke to an exciting text message telling me my figurine was ready to be picked up from the basement in Graham Sutherland. I was very excited to see it and couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. It was presented to me and I was confused at first, the figurine was surrounded in a plastic waxy substance, the technicians put me at ease once they told me that is to be washed away. The figurine is also slightly smaller than I originally wanted but due to the Universities 3D printing facilities it is the biggest I could get it.

The next step was to soak the figurine in cold water, I did so for about an hour before starting to clean it.

On the technicians advice I used a tooth brush and scrubbed the figurine, this took just over an hour but was strangely therapeutic and relaxing. I took a video of myself cleaning the figurine for around 10 minutes, I found it really hard when doing research to see any videos on the post production of 3D printing i.e. cleaning, prepping and painting so I thought I would make a video which anyone could access and not have the problems I had.

The figurine still has a rough texture on the back half so I will leave it in soak over night and scrub it again tomorrow, then it will be ready for painting.

Skill trading with Gimlong Minature Painters

daisy Ware-Jarrett — Wed, 15 May 2013 15:26:46 +0000

Gimlong Minature Painters are a Coventry based figurine painting company who mainly specialise in miniature figurines but their work is so beautiful and colourful I wanted them to paint my figurine.

I contacted Rachel AKA Gimlong Minature Painters and offered her a trade of skills. Due to having already spent over 100 on the figurine I was keen to save money, so I made an offer, in exchange for her painting my figurine I would spend a day in the studio creating a portfolio of her work. She was excited about the exchange and we are going ahead with it. Here is some of Rachels past work.

Prints in the post

daisy Ware-Jarrett — Wed, 15 May 2013 11:04:14 +0000

Today I received an email from the printing company in China with photos of my prints and information about tracking the prints. The images are slightly worrying me, its always hard to judge a photo by a photo of it. The camera they are using looks like a point and shoot which means the colours will be off. To me they look slightly blue when switched on and the blacks aren’t very predominant. I cannot really worry about this too much until I get the prints in my hands though as they might be fine. If the worst comes to worst I will try and get a refund and print the images on plain printing paper and get them mounted at the print bureaux.

Magical Girl OFF

Magical Girl ON

21st Century Geisha OFF

21st century Geisha ON

Product Placement OFF

Product Placement ON

Product placement is the image I am most worried about switched on, it seems it has taken the image from a really rich contrasting colours to a badly edited blue image, but again I need to wait until I see them in reality before I start to worry about them.

Video Drafts

daisy Ware-Jarrett — Tue, 14 May 2013 17:21:56 +0000

I have been gathering YouTube Creative Commons licensed videos for my montage context video for a while. I decided just to start making it and see where I ended up, I don’t want to over complicate it or put too much thought into it as it might end up being too time consuming and distract from my prints in the end. From the clips I have found this is my first draft.

After creative block I took a few hours away to come back to the video with a clear head. This is my second edit, I sourced more videos and think it works better, it still isn’t 100% there though. I will get feedback in class tomorrow and hopefully finish it then.

Project Statement – first draft

daisy Ware-Jarrett — Tue, 14 May 2013 17:15:26 +0000

21st Centruy Geisha, Magical Girl and Product Placement. These are all “looks” of our protagonist. Female pop cult icons change their visual identity in order to comply to whichever product or theme is in demand. They become like dolls boundlessly changing whilst simultaneously being branded as unique and liberating. Consumers are led in to a false sense of empowerment, told we are free to choose how these icons look, when really we are being drip fed options. Our so called freedom is choosing from a series of pre-selected branded looks which demand we pay before getting access. This transcends into all aspects of consumerism surrounding these transmedia icons, figures, photos and trading cards all offer different variations, we buy into choices in order to show we don’t conform. When the act of needing them proves the opposite.

This still need a lot of work, I will continuously rework and reword it until I am happy, at the moment it is no where near ready.

Prints ordered

daisy Ware-Jarrett — Tue, 14 May 2013 10:13:52 +0000

I have been flippant with my bloging in the last week, mainly because it has been an intense week of ordering, negotiating and discussing costs. I did however post before about over priced quotes for my 3 EL sheet prints. I heard back from the chinese company I asked a quote from and was pleasantly surprised at a quote of £180 for all three, more than I wanted to pay originally, but compared to to the quotes I was getting it seemed like a bargain. I checked out their website and reviews, all positive, they mainly do advertising work for companies like Cola, this is good because it means they have a high standard and being printed by a consumer driven establishment further embellishes those themes within my work. I ordered my prints on Sunday and they should arrive in the UK within a week. As they are coming from China they will be sent to the post office who will pay my tax for me, which I will have to pay them back before they delivery the prints. It might be a stressful process but still cheaper and more efficient than printing in the UK. Hopefully the prints will be sent out soon so I can pick them up form the post office as soon as possible.

Final 3D Figurine design

daisy Ware-Jarrett — Mon, 13 May 2013 17:06:02 +0000

Printing

After about a week since I first commissioned Pablo to create the 3D version of my figurine it is finished. He has done a great job and listened to my feedback on the first draft. As it is now this is how the figure looks.

I took it to the 3D printing area in Graham Sutherland to get a quote, however I was informed there were a few problems, Pablo still needs to Unify the normals and Close the contours, I messaged him about this and he replied promptly with an updated version. I will take it to the print studio tomorrow and find out as soon as possible how much printing will cost me so I can get it ordered.

Painting

My original plan was to paint the figurine myself, however now I have seen it I realise a dodgy paint job could ruin all this hard work. My product designer friend Simon told me to contact Games Workshop in Coventry to ask their advice, they directed me to a figurine painter Gimlong Minature Painters a customer who has won awards for their painting skills. I have contacted them and hopefully will be able to offer a practitioner trade (due to lack of money) if they paint my figurine I will do a day in the studio with their painted figurines and produce them a professional portfolio for free. Hopefully this will appeal to them and we can work together.

Light Panels

daisy Ware-Jarrett — Wed, 08 May 2013 09:51:50 +0000

I need to order my prints within the next few days as hand in is 2 weeks away, it could take this time just to get them printed. I have spoken to 3 companies about pricing of 3 x A2 Light panels, the first quoted me £495 and the second £523. The Quotes are overpriced especially when you bare in mind it’s only for the panel and not the print too. I was speaking in class about my frustration, Jack then told me that a second year student had produced his work on Light Panels for Picbod. I got in contact with him and he recommended a company who printed work and mounted it on a light panel for less than 100. I am currently in contact with them but getting little response so I will keep ringing and emailing until I get a price and my order confirmed.

Fight Club Consumerism

daisy Ware-Jarrett — Wed, 08 May 2013 09:38:57 +0000

In a search for video content for my context video I was thinking about narration. I don’t want to voice it over myself, I want the whole video to be a mash up of pre existing content. So I was searching for iconic moments in film where consumerism or freedom is discussed. I started with the iconic scene in fight club.

“We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars.” – Maybe this quote is misleading, I need to work out what I’m trying to say. This quote might suggest that I am talking about aspiring to be like the girl in my images, which isn’t what I’m talking about, maybe I need to not necessarily direction the audience with narrative, the video should be context then from the knowledge they gained the spectator should go onto make their own judgements. I don’t need to force my ideas in their faces.

I think with the video I just need to start putting it together and see how it goes, don’t think about it too much.

Figurine First draft

daisy Ware-Jarrett — Tue, 07 May 2013 12:38:15 +0000

After conversations with Pablo G about designing my ready to print 3D figurine I commissioned the Industrial Designer to make my figurine. He has replied to me with a first draft today. I love the over all figurine it’s great and the shapes are flawless, I asked for a few changes though. After having time to think about it I want my figurine to be more ridged and character-less, meaning straight legs together just like in my images and straighter fingers. As well as these changes I asked Pablo to make the figurines hair more straight across on the fringe. He is happy to make the changes and said he will send me the updates tomorrow.

Final edits

daisy Ware-Jarrett — Tue, 07 May 2013 11:13:58 +0000

I spent the morning on the Universities computer which is special designed for print preview. The computer is collaborated with the University Printers, and although I am not using the uni printers I think it’s better to be safe and collaborate the images to something rather than just randomly guessing.

Now I need to chase up the printing company about my quote and get the images printed.

Trading card fonts

daisy Ware-Jarrett — Sat, 04 May 2013 21:09:55 +0000

I decided tht instead of using one singular font for all the cards, each look needs it’s own style, mimicking the theme within the ‘look’.

Magical Girl

Product Placement / Consumerism

21st Century Geisha

With so many fonts I need to have a play around, see what works best and stick with that.

Creative commons video hunt

daisy Ware-Jarrett — Thu, 02 May 2013 17:33:04 +0000

I am planning to go ahead with making an intense short video of examples of the unique and surreal culture I am exploring. However my problem is having the permission to use footage, so I will have to make sure everything I find is CC licensed helpfully YouTube lets you search for CC only videos so hopefully this will make my hunt easier. I brainstormed the type of clips I wanted shortly after having the idea, my plan is to accumulate a mass of clips, then just mash them all together to make a visual introduction into the world of Interchangeable icons.

- Figurine collectors
- Nendoroid
- Old cola ads
- Magical girl transformations
- City lights
- Kyary Pamyu Pamyu
- Hatsune Miku
- Akihabara shops
- Arcades

Every time I find a new video I will add it to this post, it’s better to keep them all in one place.

Not CC licensed – need permission

Jackpot Video
“Barbie can be anything she wants to be”

Trading card feedback and attempts

daisy Ware-Jarrett — Thu, 02 May 2013 16:45:44 +0000

Two lots of advances have been made on the trading cards. The first is feedback from collectors, I asked online about why trading cards are so desired and what makes them valuable, in a hope I could learn how to make my trading cards more then just pieces of paper.

The second area of development is in terms of card content, Jon Levy showed me how powerful the character in my images is without the context, taking her away using a tight crop could really work well on a card. I’ve been playing around and here are some designs I came up with, at the moment I am trying loads of looks to see what looks best.

Font: It’s important to note the font I’ve used is a historical reference to Japanese pop culture. Lolita and Kawaii came from school girls hand writing, as strange as it sounds it is true. Girls started dotting their i’s with hearts, this cute style spread into stationary then fashion and later everything else. Hense why the Japanese school girl is such an iconic image, it’s where the modern pop culture themes derived from.